elapse

Etymology

From Middle French elapser, from Latin elapsus.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪˈlæps/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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  • Audio (Texas, Austin):

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• Rhymes: -æps

Verb

elapse (third-person singular simple present elapses, present participle elapsing, simple past and past participle elapsed)

1. (intransitive, of time) To pass or move by.

   He allowed a month to elapse before beginning the work.

   Several days elapsed before they met again.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Remembrance of the Dead”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 322:

     The week that was yet to elapse, she spent in wandering through her uncle's favourite walks in hours of tearful vigil, beside his tomb, and in collecting together every trifle on which he had set a value.

   • 1952 December, R. C. Riley, “By Rail to Kemp Town”, in Railway Magazine, page 832:

     Many years elapsed before the success of Kemp Town as a residential district was assured; the foundations of the estate were laid in 1823, but some houses remained untenanted until the 1850s.

Anagrams

• Sapele, asleep, please, sapele

Participle

ēlāpse

1. vocative masculine singular of ēlāpsus